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Wednesday, 29 February 2012

THE PROPOSAL TO erect a monument to the Marxist revolutionary
Che Guevara in Galway city has been heavily criticised by the
businessman Declan Ganley.

It was reported in the Sunday Times at
the weekend that Galway city council are considering a proposal to erect
a monument commemorating the Marxist guerrilla who helped Fidel Castro
to seize power in Cuba in 1959, power he retains to this day.
The
paper reported that the embassies of Cuba and Argentina, where Ernesto
‘Che’ Guevara was born, will help fund the art project celebrating the
links Guevara has with Galway through his grandmother who was a
descendant of the local Lynch family.
But Ganley, the founder of
the Libertas political party which came to prominence during the Lisbon
treaty referendum, has said the proposal is a ”pet project of a small
number of extremists in the Labour Party”.
The Galway-based
entrepreneur describes Guevara as a “mass-murderer” and says that
commemorating him in this way will damage the reputation of Galway
internationally.
“I actually first heard about this proposal
during a trip to the United States last week, when the issue was raised
with me by members of the American business community. To say that they
are shocked to see Galway considering a step like this would be an
understatement,” he claimed.
He said that a Labour councillor, who
he did not name, was proposing a partnership with the Cuban regime –
currently headed by Castro’s brother Raul – to raise the €90,000 needed
to build the monument which would be based on the iconic print of
Guevara by Dublin artist Jim Fitzpatrick.
However
the Sunday Times reported that the Argentine and Cuban embassies plan
to launch a global fundraising initiative that would pay for the
monument which would then be gifted to the city of Galway.
“This
monument will damage Galway. It will make us less attractive for
investment. It will drive away tourism. It will pour salt in he wounds
of those this man tortured, kidnapped, maimed and killed,” Ganley said.
“It
would be a monument to the insensitivity and ignorance of those who
dreamt it up, and it would shame the people of Galway and Ireland.”
One of the councillors reported to be behind the campaign for the monument, Labour’s Billy Cameron, did not return TheJournal.ie‘s request for comment.